


In Sickness and in Health

by smilexdarling



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Sick Character, Sickfic, Team as Family, Teamwork
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-17
Updated: 2016-10-17
Packaged: 2018-08-22 21:35:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8301979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smilexdarling/pseuds/smilexdarling
Summary: When Lardo gets sick, the SMH team comes together to help her out.





	

Bitty gets the text at 10:47 that Friday morning.

_Daisy: come to kotter asap_

It takes him a second to remember who Daisy is, one of Lardo’s art major friends that he met at Lardo’s show a long time ago. He forgot he had her number, but he doesn’t focus on that for long, worry quickly settling heavy in his stomach. 

_Bitty: hi there! i’m on my way. is everything ok?_

_Daisy: i think larissa pushed herself past her limit. she’s in studio 103. sorry i can’t help more, can’t be late again for my capstone or my prof will kill me._

Bitty worries his lip between his teeth. He isn’t entirely sure what Daisy means by “pushed herself past her limit”, but he has a feeling it’s not good. 

Luckily, he doesn’t have any classes that day, his only one having been cancelled, so he hastily whips his apron off and rushes out of the kitchen nearly bowling Chowder over.

“Whoa, you okay Bitty?”

“Oh Chowder, good, you can come with me. There’s something wrong with Lardo, I don’t know what, but we need to go to Kotter,” Bitty says as he tugs Chowder along behind him out the door.

They weave through the maze of hallways that make up the first floor of the art building until they finally find the room Daisy told him to go to. Bitty opens the door and looks around. The room is empty, and for a second he thinks maybe Daisy gave him the wrong room number and he’ll have to scour the building, but then he sees it. 

One of Lardo’s boots, and they have to belong to Lardo since they’re covered in little ducks, is poking out from under a table in the corner of the room. He and Chowder move toward it, narrowly avoiding knocking over several easels. 

Bitty kneels down and finds a big bundle of blanket that looks like the one Lardo usually keeps on her bed. He chuckles, assuming the rest of her must be hiding under it, and apparently she’s asleep, if the faint snores are anything to go by.

Bitty shares a look with Chowder, who shrugs, before he gently shakes what he hopes is Lardo’s shoulder.

“Lardo? It’s Bitty. Lardo wake up, sweetheart.”

The blanket moves a little until finally Lardo’s head pops out. Bitty’s face immediately softens at her rumpled hair and sleepy eyes. 

“Bits?” Lardo croaks.

“Hey, not that I’m judging, but did you mean to fall asleep under a table?”

Lardo closes her eyes and winces. She doesn’t really answer Bitty’s question, mostly just mumbling and groaning.

Bitty decides to take charge of the situation, because he guesses those little sniffles that ‘were nothing, honestly Bits’ have finally caught up with poor Lardo and turned into a full-blown cold. 

“Okay, Chowder. Can you carry Lardo back to the Haus? It doesn’t look like she’s up for much walking.” 

Chowder nods and carefully gathers Lardo and her blanket up bridal style. Bitty helps tuck the blanket back around Lardo once she’s settled securely in his arms, then he turns to find her backpack. He spots it and her phone nearby on the floor where she must have dropped them on her way to her makeshift bed.

Lardo and her stuff all accounted for, they head out, only getting a few strange looks from passersby. Bitty supposes people are mostly used to the hockey team and their shenanigans by now.

They’re almost back to the Haus when Caitlin rounds the corner. Her eyes light up and she waves at them “Hey guys! Oh no, is Lardo okay?” 

Caitlin hurries toward them and brushes Lardo’s hair back from her forehead. Lardo doesn’t respond, having fallen back asleep before they even made it out of Kotter, just keeps snoring. 

“Oh, she’s burning up,” Caitlin says. “Are you taking her back to the Haus?”

Chowder nods, “Yeah, we think she has a cold. Bitty’s gonna make soup!”

Caitlin smiles, “That sounds good. I’ll go pick up whatever meds I can find at the drug store and see if they have those nice tissues with the lotion. I’ll bring it all by after my classes.”

“That’s so sweet of you, Farmer, thanks. I’m making enough soup for everyone, so you can have some too when you come by,” Bitty says as Chowder kisses Caitlin on the cheek goodbye. 

Bitty’s running through the ingredients he thinks he has for the soup when they finally get back to the Haus, but they don’t make it past the living room before they’re stopped again.

Dex spots Lardo still huddled in Chowder’s arms, and he’s up off the couch in an instant. 

Nursey isn’t far behind him as they both rush over. 

“Shit, what happened?” Nursey asks just as Dex asks, “Who am I murdering?” 

Bitty holds his hands up and shushes them, “She’s okay, nothing bad happened. She just probably should have stayed in bed today because she’s got one heck of a cold. At least, I think that’s what it is, but either way she’s sick and Chowder’s gonna go lay her down so she can rest. Spread the word to the rest of the guys that the Haus needs to be a quiet zone for the day, okay?”

Dex nods, already pulling out his phone to send out a group text as he walks away, “I’m gonna go fix the toaster.”

Bitty furrows his brow, “Um, okay. I didn’t know the toaster was broken?”

He looks to Nursey for explanation, “Lards mentioned to him a couple days ago that it was acting up. Anyway, I’ll go switch out the sheets on her bed. It’s always nice to have clean sheets when you feel like crap, right?”

“Yeah, good idea. There should be a fresh set in the linen closet,” Bitty says. 

Bitty stands there for a moment, a little frazzled and trying to figure out what to do next, when Chowder clears his throat quietly next to him. 

“Oh, Chowder, right uh—let’s go lay her on my bed until Nursey’s done. I don’t want her on that disgusting couch, especially not when her immune system is already compromised.”

Chowder and Bitty head up the stairs, making sure to avoid the especially squeaky steps. 

* * *

Lardo wakes up warm and congested. She tries breathing through her nose and realizes that that’s not going to happen, so she breathes through her mouth and registers her insanely sore throat. Groaning and rolling over to fall back asleep until this fresh hell is over, she comes face to face with a familiar brown mustache. 

“Dude, you’re fuckin’ rank.”

“I’m sick you asshole.”

Shitty tightens his arms around Lardo, “Yeah, but your sick breath is even worse than your morning breath. Here, have some tea, maybe it’ll help.”

Shitty helps Lardo sit up in her bed and hands her a mug of tea that’s still got tendrils of steam emanating from it. She sips it slowly, closing her eyes at how good it feels going down, warming her from the inside. 

She cups the mug in her chilled hands and asks, “When did you get here?”

“Couple of hours ago. I got Dex’s text this morning and wanted to come earlier, but I knew you’d chew me out if I blew off all my classes today, so feel free to shower me with praise for being such a responsible law student,” Shitty says.

Lardo snorts and blinks at him through crusty eyes. She feels disgusting, wrinkling her nose as she tries to remember the morning. It’s fuzzy, but she knows she went to Kotter and then she thinks she remembers Chowder carrying her, but after that she’s got nothing.

Shitty, always on her wavelength, fills her in on how the team all helped her out and she ducks her head halfway through to hide how much it’s affecting her. 

“Hey, what’s up?”

She shrugs and sniffles, “I know you guys all have my back, it’s just, I don’t know…” she trails off.

Shitty leans in and presses a kiss to her forehead, “You’re our girl, Lards, we’ll always be there for you. Rain or shine, hell or high water, in sickness and in health.”

She laughs, but it quickly turns into hacking coughs that Shitty rubs her back through. Once she’s got her breath back, she slumps into his chest and sighs.

“I think a swawesome bath, complete with a lush bomb, is in order. Whaddaya say?” 

“Fuck yes.”

Lardo watches as Shitty disappears into the bathroom and listens as he rifles through her and Chowder’s bath bomb collection.

Despite feeling like death warmed up, she can’t help but smile. It’s not that she ever doubted that her boys would do anything for her, she knows they would, but seeing it in action reminds her that she’s got the best friends she could’ve ever dreamed of. 

She grabs a tissue to blow her nose. She instantly can tell they’re the fancy lotion-y kind. 

Okay, she loves her boys, but Caitlin Farmer is her queen.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on [tumblr](http://www.smilexdarling.tumblr.com)!


End file.
